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Call for Chattooga River Comments

If you care about being able to enjoy rivers flowing through public lands, we ask that you submit
a comment regarding the upper Chattooga River (NC/SC/GA), and to call your political
representative.

The Forest Service recently published a 500-page manifesto aimed at continuing the 35 year old
ban on paddling the upper Chattooga. The sole reason for excluding
paddlers from the river is that the USFS claims the mere sight or thought of boaters
on the river will ruin the outdoor experience for other river users. Rather than
discounting or limiting these few "zero-tolerance" visitors, the USFS instead bans
paddling for their exclusive benefit. Imagine the potential implications for other rivers
if this justification prevails on the Chattooga, one of the best known Wild and Scenic Rivers in
the country. For 500 pages, your government classifies you as a
second class citizen because you are a paddler, singling you out for harsh limits.

The agency is essentially trying to invent a new management classification that excludes
paddlers. The problem for them is that the area is already protected
as a Wild and Scenic River and as a Wilderness Area. These
designations protect your right to legally float our nations wildest rivers. The USFS must not be allowed to redefine and weaken the Wilderness Act and Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act to exclude paddlers.

The USFS preferred alternative would ban paddling on the uppermost and lowermost section of the
upper Chattooga as well as the tributaries, and would allow 6 weeks of winter paddling on each of
two additional sections. The USFS estimates that this would result in
4-5 boatable days on each of the two sections each year, but their calculations are
suspect. Chances are there will be fewer real
opportunities. Paddlers wanting to run these sections will then be
forced to visit the same section of the river on the same day, and the USFS anticipates using
monitoring to trigger additional use limits or a total ban. Given
their interests, expect a ban.

Please consider submitting a comment letter to the USFS telling them that:

Paddling should be allowed on all Wilderness and Wild and Scenic rivers, including the upper
Chattooga.

Their preferred alternative (12) is not fair, legal, or justified.

Alternative 8 is the best and alternative but needs to allow paddling on the
entire upper Chattooga and its tributaries, should require indirect limits on all
visitors before direct limits are applied, and should not include “scenic boating” or
“boat-based angling” in the analysis.

Paddlers should be able to paddle the entire river as a multi-day trip if
desired.

Their analysis is not reasonable because they treat paddlers inequitably and
irrationally.

Also, please consider sendingyour Representativea message letting him or her know that the USFS is spending millions of dollars
trying to ban the simple act of floating down a river, without any rational reason
whatsoever. Share how this decision impacts your life and your
enjoyment of public lands. Ask that they contact the USFS in support
of paddling on the Upper Chattooga River.

Check out the
USFS Chattooga Page, the AW Chattooga Page, and
learn how to file comments here or just send them an
email at comments-southern-francismarion-sumter@fs.fed.usComments are due August 30, 2011**

While the USFS doggedly tries to support an unsupportable ban with a stunning quantity of words
on paper, a team of conservation-oriented paddlers continues to sue them in federal
court. These efforts are challenging the agency’s attempts to
redefine and weaken bedrock environmental legislation like the National Environmental Protection
Act, the Wilderness Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Our goal
is to bring protective and nationally consistent management to the Upper Chattooga River.

** On August 1, 2011 the USFS deadline for comments was extended 15 days to August 30th.